Chapter 200: Yuan Lang Gets Silenced!
He was left hanging there for half an hour, but before they could even exchange a few words, Regiment Commander Wang started chasing him away. Captain Tie definitely wouldn’t stand for that.
“Hey, hey, hey, I say Old Wang, this is not how you take advantage of an opportunity. I went to great lengths to come here, and you’re sending me back empty-handed? Aren’t you embarrassed? We’ve known each other for more than a day or two.”
Tie Lu didn’t forget his original intention for coming here, smoothly shifting to play the emotional appeal card.
“One thing is one thing. We are armored infantry, you are special operations forces, not the same branch of service, so it’s definitely not suitable. What are you here to do?”
Regiment Commander Wang’s mouth remained very tight, stubbornly refusing to let even one soldier go.
“Whether it’s suitable or not, neither you nor I can decide. They have to try it to know. If it’s really not suitable, I won’t force it. Okay?”
Tie Lu had no choice but to lower his stance and negotiate. Before Regiment Commander Wang could answer, he continued proactively: “I think, how about this.
Neither of us brings personal emotions into it, just follow the superior’s meaning and go through the process.
Next Wednesday, right on your regiment’s training ground, I’ll give you a list, you organize them all, and do a simple basic test.
This selection recruitment is based on voluntariness, I won’t use superior orders to pressure, and you won’t interfere with them either. That’s the fairest way. What do you think?”
Tie Lu had been a soldier for almost half his life and had never been so humble in front of a peer of the same level.
Regiment Commander Wang could tell that Tie Lu was serious, and he also knew that A Company had orders from the military region. It would really be impossible to block them from recruiting in the regiment.
Even if he could forcibly keep one or two soldiers, the others would be hard to say.
If he pushed Tie Lu too far, with the military region’s connections, he could forcibly transfer away eight or ten. It would be better to cooperate and let him recruit two or three.
As long as Chen Jun wasn’t transferred!
After carefully thinking for a moment, Regiment Commander Wang said with a straight face and expressionless: “Fine. When the time comes, I’ll have them go to the training ground.”
“Haha, then it’s settled.” Tie Lu grinned happily.
“Don’t celebrate too early.”
Regiment Commander Wang poured another basin of cold water: “Don’t include Chen Jun’s name, because even if you do, I won’t let him come.”
“Don’t worry, everything can be negotiated. Let’s get this done first, and talk about the rest later.”
Tie Lu wasn’t in a hurry to haggle with Regiment Commander Wang, smilingly steering the topic away, not dwelling on it for now.
He knew that rice had to be eaten bite by bite, and roads walked step by step.
With a good start, the rest would be easy.
…
Steel Seventh Company.
Yuan Lang jumped down from the car, half-squinting at the bright red “Steel Seventh Company” three characters above the building, confirming it was right before striding in.
“Hello, leader. What can I do for you?”
The sentry standing guard at the building entrance immediately stood at attention, loudly reporting and asking.
His eyes were full of confusion!
No prior notification or order, and a lieutenant colonel suddenly showing up at the company was a rare occurrence for most companies.
“Is your Deputy Company Commander Chen here?” Yuan Lang returned the salute and asked.
“Report, leader. The deputy company commander is in the company, working in his room. If you’re looking for him, I need to see your identification first and do entry registration. Do you have your officer’s certificate?” The sentry followed procedure and asked.
“Here.”
Yuan Lang didn’t rely on seniority or show off his experience, pulling out his officer’s certificate and handing it over.
“Capital Military Region direct… 86749 troops…”
The sentry opened Yuan Lang’s officer’s certificate, and just seeing those first few words, his heartbeat suddenly accelerated, his eyes widening instantly.
The other sentry responsible for registration was also startled.
A group army seemed very distant to them, let alone a direct unit of one of the seven military regions.
Seeing Yuan Lang’s impressive background, the two sentries didn’t even need to register. What kind of registration for someone of this status? Even the regiment commander wouldn’t register.
They immediately handed back the officer’s certificate with both hands, saluted crisply, and said: “Leader, please wait here a moment. I’ll go call the deputy company commander for you right now.”
The sentry finished speaking and was about to enter the building to call Chen Jun out for Yuan Lang.
“No, no need.”
Yuan Lang stopped the departing sentry, gesturing inside with his hand and saying: “Lead the way ahead, take me to his office.”
“Yes!”
The sentry didn’t dare slack off and hurriedly led the way in front.
It was just training time for Steel Seventh Company. Company Commander Gao Cheng had taken the team out for training, and the political instructor had gone to the regimental political department for something.
The entire building was exceptionally empty.
They didn’t encounter anyone along the way and went straight to the door of Chen Jun’s dormitory.
The offices of the deputy company commander, company commander, and political instructor were actually their dormitories. The rooms weren’t large, divided into inner and outer sections.
The inside was for dormitory and sleeping, a few square meters.
Outside was a desk and a few chairs, serving as a dedicated office.
“Report!”
The sentry knocked on the door and shouted loudly at the entrance.
Recently, Chen Jun had been busy writing theory and training methods to poach treasures from A Company next, rarely leading training personally.
Hearing the knock, he didn’t even lift his head, continuing to write at the desk, casually saying: “Come in!”
“Report, deputy company commander, a leader is here for you.”
The sentry pushed the door open from outside, came in, saluted, and reported loudly.
“A leader?”
Only then did Chen Jun lift his head and look toward the door.
He saw Yuan Lang with a raised corner of his mouth, leisurely striding in with big steps, their gazes colliding.
“Hello, leader.”
Chen Jun immediately stood up from the desk, moved to the side, saluted Yuan Lang, and greeted him.
“We’re all old acquaintances, be casual.”
Yuan Lang raised his hand to return the salute, appearing very approachable.
“You can go now.”
Chen Jun waved the sentry away first, then gestured to the chair in the corner by the wall: “Leader, please sit. I’ll pour you a cup of water.”
“Okay.”
Yuan Lang wasn’t polite, walked over and sat down, habitually pulling out a cigarette and lighting it.
Chen Jun brewed a cup of tea with a tea cup, placed it on the desk beside where Yuan Lang sat, then sat on the chair next to him, pretending not to understand as he asked: “Since we parted after the last exercise, several months have passed in the blink of an eye.
I wonder what brings you here in person this time, specifically to find me?”
Chen Jun knew better than anyone why Yuan Lang was here, but to achieve his goal, he had to pretend to be completely unaware.
“Nothing major.”
Yuan Lang deliberately made himself seem very casual, without any deliberate agenda, saying offhandedly: “I said we’d meet soon, and now the timing is just right.”
Yuan Lang spoke cryptically, trying to whet Chen Jun’s appetite.
“For you to keep me in mind like this, it’s truly my honor, haha.” Chen Jun continued playing dumb, not picking up on Yuan Lang’s words.
“You’re quite boring…”
Yuan Lang smirked ambiguously, smacking his lips meaningfully.
He took a drag on the cigarette, slowly exhaling and saying: “We’re recruiting a batch of people recently, now at your regiment, so I stopped by to see you.”
If Yuan Lang went into business, with his acting skills, he’d definitely succeed.
“Your unit should be a professional Blue Army unit, right? All with strong individual soldier qualities, and you still need to come to our armored infantry regiment to recruit?” Chen Jun played dumb.
“Professions aren’t divided by status. No matter the branch of service, there will always be excellent talents.”
Seeing Chen Jun like traditional Lu cuisine—three no’s: no salt, no sugar, no flavor—no matter how long they chatted, even a day, nothing would come of it. Yuan Lang had no choice but to take the initiative and ask.
Whoever asked first would lose the initiative.
Yuan Lang had cast several hooks but hadn’t caught Chen Jun; he had no other way.
“A few days ago, I saw three very good articles in the military report, all signed Chen Jun at the end. They wouldn’t happen to be yours, would they?”
Yuan Lang didn’t directly assume it was Chen Jun but used a questioning approach, which was also a good technique.
“Just something I wrote for fun, nonsense really, haha.” Chen Jun laughed self-deprecatingly.
“For fun??”
Yuan Lang showed a very strange expression.
Others racked their brains without grasping it, but you casually do it as a hobby. Anyone hearing that would find it odd.
This was straight-up showing off!
But Chen Jun showed off so righteously that Yuan Lang actually took a liking to these “nonsense” works of his and could only continue the topic.
Moreover, Yuan Lang was actually confirming whether it was really written by Chen Jun himself.
Now that it was confirmed to be Chen Jun’s work, it proved he was that one-in-a-million genius, and the rest was simple.
That was to use every possible method to get Chen Jun to voluntarily join A Company.
As long as Chen Jun was willing to go to A Company, Tie Lu would have many ways to make it happen, bypassing Seventh Hundred and Second Regiment, T Division, even the Eighty-fourth Group Army, to make Chen Jun a member of Old A.
The goal was clear, so it was time to act.
“Your interests are quite broad, very good.”
Yuan Lang raised his thick eyebrows, his tone laced with temptation: “Let me introduce you first. What kind of unit I’m from.
You’ve definitely never heard of A Company, but you’ve heard of special operations forces, right?”
“Of course. It’s said that the special forces soldiers in special operations forces are all soldier kings, easily one against ten, even one against a hundred isn’t impossible.”
Chen Jun had a faint smile, but his description was a bit exaggerated.
Deliberately!
Yuan Lang felt something off about Chen Jun but couldn’t pinpoint it, so he continued along his own lines: “One against a hundred isn’t impossible, but it requires certain conditions and environment.
And our A Company is different from them, with even superior capabilities. You can think of it as special operations forces among special operations forces.
We not only have better weaponry and equipment, but also provide warriors with greater room for improvement.
Your abilities are very good. If you could join our A Company, with your talent and ability, your future path would absolutely be wonderful.
If you’re interested in this…”
Yuan Lang patted the epaulet on his shoulder, continuing the temptation: “As long as you join A Company, I can guarantee you with my chest thumping, at most no more than five years, you’ll reach this.
By then, you won’t even be thirty, a deputy regiment level cadre in his twenties—no need to say in your T Division, even looking across the entire army, there aren’t many.”
Yuan Lang painted pies from two aspects: personal ability improvement and advantages in position and military rank.
Anyone pursuing personal ability, like Wu Liu Yi and Cheng Cai who were competitive, would definitely be tempted by Yuan Lang’s words.
But Chen Jun was an exception!
For Chen Jun, who had been a soldier for several lifetimes, military rank, position, ability—all were fleeting clouds. He had long stood at the heights and experienced it.
His current goal was only one; he had no interest in other things.
And the most important point was…
Even without following Yuan Lang to A Company, just staying in field units, with his own ability and strength, plus the inherent buff of combined arms units.
Reaching lieutenant colonel in five years had difficulty, but wasn’t too hard.
So these temptations from Yuan Lang were no temptations to Chen Jun, just idle chit-chat.
What Chen Jun wanted wasn’t these at all, but the soldier kings of A Company.
Yuan Lang hadn’t realized it yet.
So without thinking, Chen Jun decisively refused just like before: “I don’t want to be any soldier king, and I have no interest in becoming a lieutenant colonel in my twenties. I just want to fulfill my own dream.”
“A dream? Mind sharing it with me?”
Yuan Lang’s extended olive branch was rejected, but he showed no displeasure.
“My dream? Haha.”
Chen Jun laughed, then said seriously: “My dream is very simple: to use my modest strength to make our motherland have a stronger army, so that our army’s combat effectiveness is not inferior to any country in the world.”
Chen Jun said this partly deliberately to disrupt Yuan Lang’s thinking, but mostly it was his true inner thoughts.
“Okay.”
Chen Jun’s words were on a very high ideological level; Yuan Lang had no way to critique them and could only continue striving: “Joining A Company won’t affect your dream; it could even play a bigger role.
A Company is the entire army’s only special operations pilot unit. Anything you do in A Company will directly influence the entire army.
Whereas if you stay in grassroots units, your influence is at most Seventh Zero Two Regiment.”
Yuan Lang thought from the perspective of a special forces soldier, from the national demand for counter-terrorism combat, from the seven military regions all forming modernized special operations forces.
The value Chen Jun could bring was indeed greater, indeed able to influence all special operations forces in the entire army.
“I don’t agree with your words.”
Chen Jun directly negated Yuan Lang and countered: “I reformed Steel Seventh Company into a combined arms company, which can influence a regiment in exercise confrontations.
You can’t refute that, because our previous mountain confrontation is the proof.”
“Right, I admit, without Steel Seventh Company, Seventh Zero Two Regiment would have definitely lost that exercise.” Yuan Lang nodded, acknowledging Chen Jun’s words.
“Good.”
Chen Jun continued: “As early as two months ago, I already proposed the establishment plan for a combined arms battalion, which is now under discussion in the group army.
Once the combined arms battalion is successfully established, I’m confident I can influence division-level combat.
And combined arms battalion isn’t my limit. I can also use the experience summarized from combined arms company and combined arms battalion, plus my years of research on combined arms tactics.
In the future, I can attempt combined arms regiment, combined arms brigade, even combined arms division.
Since a combined arms battalion can decide a division’s combat, don’t I have sufficient reason to infer that a combined arms division can influence over a million troops in the entire army?
So, isn’t the value of me staying in grassroots units greater than joining A Company??”
…
After hearing this from Chen Jun, Yuan Lang was left utterly speechless!!
